Foot pain when skating

[Kgbeast 195]

9 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Maybe a skating lesson or two would help? If you're skating with your foot and toes clenched then yeah that's going to hurt pretty quickly also. 

This is most likely it. You are insecure on skates and subconsciously trying to "grab" the bottoms of your skates with your toes and stuff. You stiffen up all your muscles from knee down which causes all kind of pain.

I would recommend rental figure skates from the rink for a while. They offer more stability, better balance, and toe picks can also with confidence in the begining. If you do this, make sure to focus on not using toe picks and keeping your ankles straight. This will "teach" you where the ankles are. Wear some sort of knee and elbows cushions or pads . They sell compression sleeves with cushion builtin which you can put under your jeans. Lean forward a bit to minimize chance of falling backwards.

At home stand on one foot with goal for 2 minutes on each. This will also build up your ankles and foot muscles. 

You should be able to get in your hockey skates after you feel relatively confident in figure skates. You will see how much harder it is to stand and skate in hockey skates, but it should take only 3-4 outings to get comfortable.

[marka 524]

Howdy,

 

I think I've mentioned this already, but if your feet hurt with your skates on at home just standing around, its unlikely (to me) that this foot pain is coming from a lack of skating ability / tensing your muscles trying to grab the ice / skate with your toes.

 

My issue when I started was that the skates felt fine in the store when I had them on my feet for ten to 15 minutes, but out on the ice I would clench up more and there would be lots of pain... I may not be remembering correctly, but I'm not sure that matches what you've got happening.

 

Mark

[stormrunners 0]

2 hours ago, marka said:

Howdy,

 

I think I've mentioned this already, but if your feet hurt with your skates on at home just standing around, its unlikely (to me) that this foot pain is coming from a lack of skating ability / tensing your muscles trying to grab the ice / skate with your toes.

 

My issue when I started was that the skates felt fine in the store when I had them on my feet for ten to 15 minutes, but out on the ice I would clench up more and there would be lots of pain... I may not be remembering correctly, but I'm not sure that matches what you've got happening.

 

Mark

This sort of matches with my situation it starts to get a little sore in the store after a while but it instantly starts to hurt on the ice and the pain isn't just soreness its like throbbing shooting pains.

[boo10 323]

16 hours ago, stormrunners said:

 

When you say it hurts "after a while" in the store, are you standing and walking around the whole time or just sitting?  It's sounding more and more like Tacks don't match your foot profile.  You said you wear a 9-10 shoe, but if you're closer to 9 than 10, a 7.5 Tacks is probably a half size too big.  If this is the case, the arch of the skate will be in the wrong spot.

[stormrunners 0]

standing and walking around when I'm sitting its fine.

[boo10 323]

17 hours ago, stormrunners said:

Maybe you're just a tenderfoot!  :) JK

Try the compression socks and extra insole to see if the pain is lessened.

[marka 524]

Howdy,

Another thing that helped me was skating barefoot/without socks.  At the time I thought it was because I needed the extra width, but in hindsight, I'm not convinced that it wasn't because when barefoot my foot slipped around inside the boot less.

Regardless, its something to try.

Another thing you can try is to skate for a while, then sit and stretch your feet, either inside the skates (which doesn't work all that well) or taking the skates off, stretching them out, and then putting skates back on again.

 

Mark

[jgold47 12]

my .02.  I've been dealing with foot pain since I started playing again a couple of months ago.  On my second pair of skates (well 4th technically), because if change one thing one way, it screws something else up. 

 

1. bottom of the foot pain seemed to go away for me when I figured out that my skates were too narrow. On my first pair, I had them stretched (too far unfortunately, which is another issue), on my second pair I had them punched/molded where I need them.  my feet are most sensitive to the width issue, 

2. tied to the width issue is the tightness of the lacing.  I have a different method for each eyelet (still experimenting), like eyelet two, pull 20%, eyelet 4 pull 40%.   If its off even a little, I'll get all around squeeze. 

3. when I had shin/ankle pain, having my skates re profiled with a forward radius really seemed to help.  it really changed my posture and my stride.  I"m still going back and forth with an 11' or 10' radius, but the forward pitch really helped in that regard

4. top of the foot is lace bite, and come from having your skates too tight, or likely too 'shallow' for your foot. This is another issue I've really fought with, as my feet are fairly high volume.  it causes you to leave your laces a little looser, which in turn makes the boot a little loose. 

The foot sway or bending comes from having skates not fitted right. (they'll call you a bender :))  when I over stretched by first pair, my foot would roll terrible on one side. my newer skates are a much more close fit and I dont bend.  I do have to tie them pretty tight at the top which is causing some additional issues due to fighting the boot to flex forward. I'm going to work on getting more comfortable skating with the top lace undone which is what everyone recommends. 

If that fails, then its off to see JR for him to tell me i've been in the wrong skates all along and that if I had just come to see him over the summer like offered, I would have saved 10x time and 2x money figuring this out :)

 

 

[stormrunners 0]

thank you everyone all of you have been super helpful, sadly i won't be able to skate for the next month because I'm going back home which doesn't have a public rink within 2 hours of my hometown.

[Vet88 673]

12 hours ago, stormrunners said:

thank you everyone all of you have been super helpful, sadly i won't be able to skate for the next month because I'm going back home which doesn't have a public rink within 2 hours of my hometown.

If you want to keep up the learning process, get a pair of inlines. Put them on at home whenever you can and roll around in them. I know its winter time so outdoors will not be good but come summer you could get more practice in without having to ice skate. Alternatively is there an inline rink anywhere nearby? Any time in skates is good learning time. I'd suggest some soft sided recreational boots to start (it's easy to take the brake off) and it would be interesting to see if you have any foot pain in these.

[IPv6Freely 2090]

7 hours ago, Vet88 said:

If you want to keep up the learning process, get a pair of inlines. Put them on at home whenever you can and roll around in them. I know its winter time so outdoors will not be good but come summer you could get more practice in without having to ice skate. Alternatively is there an inline rink anywhere nearby? Any time in skates is good learning time. I'd suggest some soft sided recreational boots to start (it's easy to take the brake off) and it would be interesting to see if you have any foot pain in these.

Does that actually translate well? I've always thought about getting a pair of inlines (probably convert my Makos if/when I get VH) just for fun but wasn't sure how close they compared. 

[seanfku 1]

3 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Does that actually translate well? I've always thought about getting a pair of inlines (probably convert my Makos if/when I get VH) just for fun but wasn't sure how close they compared. 

I don't think they compare all that much to warrant getting inline skates. Edge control is completely different and in my opinion not worth it unless you don't have an option.

[stormrunners 0]

i actually do have a pair of inlines and they do hurt just the same but i can get more time before they really start to hurt.

[puckpilot 312]

7 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Does that actually translate well? I've always thought about getting a pair of inlines (probably convert my Makos if/when I get VH) just for fun but wasn't sure how close they compared. 

I haven't used my inlines for years and years, but from what I remember It translates broadly. You're not going to learn precision edge control, but stuff like transitioning from forwards and backwards translates IMHO quite well. The basic movements to stride and to an extent turns are exactly the same. Get good enough and you can even power stop.

The difference I've found is inlines provide more stability. They grip the ground better, so I cold pull off  a few things that I normally couldn't do on ice. For example, I could do backwards crossovers with a lot more stability and power than I could on ice.

It's not perfect, but it will help you with your ice skating. You just have to be able to traverse some of the differences. If I recall right, the Mullen brothers learned to play hockey on roller skates, not roller blades, and they did OK for themselves. 

[Larry54 243]

On the other hand, from my experience some things require more precision on rollerblades. Transitioning from forward to backward and vice versa, some people cheat on ice with a bit of sliding sideways. You can't do that on rollerblades. Learning to do it properly on rollerblades will actually improve your technique on ice. Other than that and stopping, techniques are almost identical, and you're training the same muscles.

One thing that I read years ago in the Laura Stamm book, she mentions how well the techniques translate from rollerblading to ice skating. She does mention however that while rollerblading is good for training for endurance due to the extra weight of the skates, you shouldn't use them for quickness training because your muscle memory will get used to less quickness and the habit will transfer to your ice skating.

[Vet88 673]

15 hours ago, IPv6Freely said:

Does that actually translate well? I've always thought about getting a pair of inlines (probably convert my Makos if/when I get VH) just for fun but wasn't sure how close they compared. 

It translates well. inline will give you balance, acceleration, turning and cross overs but no edge control. Shooting is more stable in inline because there is no rocker to worry about. Stopping though is a completely different story, lol, get an ice player going into a corner after a puck on inlines and he is sitting on his ass every time, edges and wheel grip are not the same. I see players transitioning from one sport to the other all the time, you can generally tell an inline player coming to ice because they often have great mitts but no structure in their play and an ice player coming to inline looks really smooth in their skating and turning and better heads up play but can't stop. Also in inline power turning at high speed is a lot more technical, in ice your edge will grip / slide even if your technique is not good but in inline once you lose that grip (especially if your outside foot folds inwards on the skate as your turn) you are sitting on your ass. But good technique is good technique regardless of what you have on your feet, our last nationals had a bunch of ice players turn up, first time on inlines and they made the semis. And there are a number of iihf inline tournaments I have been to where the top teams have nhl / khl and other named league ringers in playing. A lot of pro ice players used to play inline, some even still rock up at the odd tournament or so when allowed to, Bobby Ryan is one who played at a pro inline tournament (for Mission Old Boys) during the last lockout and even though he was shit faced the whole tournament he still was the best skater and player out there by a country mile.....

[Vet88 673]

12 hours ago, stormrunners said:

i actually do have a pair of inlines and they do hurt just the same but i can get more time before they really start to hurt.

Based on what you have said, I think the issue is more than just skates. If I was in your shoes I'd be wanting to see a physiotherapist who has a background in ice hockey / feet and start a regime of exercises for foot strengthening. Mix this with time in skates (stopping before it starts to hurt) and gradually building your time up and you may be able to get to a skate pain free stage.

[tpedersen3118 58]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:56 PM, stormrunners said:

Pain is the whole bottom of the foot and yes whenever i have the skates on and yes i can get if i stand up in the skates no matter what. i got custom insoles from the podiatrist but I've been scared to try it because it has been a long and painful process so far.

I had similar foot pain after taking  extended (10yrs) time away from the game. 

I bought new skates, had them baked, and hit the open skate or outdoor rinks just to get my feet back into shape. I also added some CCM footbeds which helped a ton with arch support. Waxed laces help in customizing fit, but be careful as they "lock" and don't stretch as much as un-waxed laces so if they are and uncomfortable when sitting or standing, they will be 10x worse when playing. 

I'd suggest this... go to open skates, not hockey just to get your feet used to skating and working the muscles in your feet. Get a footbed that supports your arch, try them all in-store until you find your fit. If using waxed laces, just snug them up, the laces should be able to move ever so slightly. Lastly, and if you are still having pain, have them baked again. This will help with the break-in process especially if you are not skating a ton to break them in naturally.